A laser printer has an extra light to attract flies, which are trapped in a receptacle. Half are burnt in poorly-ventilated conditions to produce carbon black and carbon monoxide, half frozen and finely ground finely. Condensation from the refrigerated portion is harvested and electrolysed to produce
hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and CO are heated and catalysed together with alumina, zinc oxide and copper to produce methanol, which is then condensed and added to the finely ground insect parts for a couple of weeks to dissolve the cuticular lipids. The solution is then filtered and heated to drive off the methanol, leaving a waxy residue. This is then mixed with the soot to produce toner, which is then used in the conventional way, as with a normal laser printer. Part of the heat for generating this is provided by burning the CO and oxygen together, along with the methanol.

The printer therefore has a self-renewing toner supply, which is however in no way veggie.

Yes, it is extremely twiddly. I did think it might be doable by attracting dust and carbonising it, but that would just make soot, which would rub off the paper. There has to be a way of getting it to stick.[Jutta], i was thinking of involving the laser somehow , but don't most laser printers really use LEDs rather than fully-fledged lasers? Then again, maybe they should.

That was it, [21Q].Well, [xenzag], it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Chitin is a polysaccharide, after all. Squashed insects immersed in methanol and then possibly formic acid might do the trick, but since some insects secrete that, i don't know if it'd work. The trick would be to remove lipids and proteins and leave the chitin. The fibres might also be rather short.

There are LED printers [link], but, AFAIK, they are only the ones sold as such, and they're not yet common. I don't know if they were available at all ten years ago. Other than using a linear array of LEDs instead of an LD with a scanning mechanism, they work similarly to laser printers.